Great trip. Great guides. Panoramic Madrid sightseeing a must to include.

The morning tour to El Escorial and Valley of Fallen was excellent and the guide did a wonderful job of getting us through to see everything possible within the allotted time. Her English was very good and she spoke clearly and informatively. I was not impressed by the afternoon Madrid panoramic tour because the guide spoke far too quickly in a Spanish style and was difficult to understand. Also the journey was confusing because one couldn't see much out of the windows of a coach. I would have preferred an open top bus tour which would not only have made the 'sights' visible but would have provided a much better orientation of the City.

I had a full day tour. The morning part to El Escorial was grate, but when we have tour around Madrid it was horrible. When I booked this trip it was Spanish / English , but it was also French . It was impossible for the guide and for us. We got completely lost in three languages and the guide had no time to tell us what we are seeng. Waste of money and time. It will be more cheaper and and informative on "hop on hop off". We were very disappointed!!!

Handy dandy drive to the Monastery and the Valley of the Fallen.
Practical, they buy the tickets and you enter through the group entrance which is faster.
Good explanations- bit rushed though.

Nice

Perfect...must see

A very high potential tour taht could use quite a bit of improvement. There don't seem to be many tourists taking it (the bus was empty, there were maybe 10-12 people all in all) but it was still in Spanish and English (with only two people being non-English speakers). The bus was comfortable, the ride on a Saturday morning was quick (a bit of delay on the way back but nothing unmanageable). I understand it's more economical to have bilingual tours, but it really takes away from the experience.

Both sites are very impressive, Valley of the Fallen being my son's and my favourite. Timing was bad though - we had 45 minutes total left for the Valley of the Fallen, which deserves A LOT more - both from the architectural and natural points of view. This is a real pity, time should have been distributed differently.

As to the Madrid sightseeing tour, we really couldn't figure out much of what was said in English and eventually gave up. If you don't need a full-blown bus and have time, I think hop-on hop-off option would be a much better option with pre-recorded information available and freedom to explore areas of Madrid at your own pace.

El Escorial Monastery is definitely a must-see and what a monstrosity of a building and it sometimes makes one wonder how the holy fathers used to live in those days! It was a bi-lingual tour and the tour guide for us that morning was not very informative, but regardless, we enjoyed the day.

Good tour !. Bus went to bus station in El Escorial and had a walk with many stairs up and down to the monastery. Guide covered high spots. Walked back to bus station and had time for coffee. Then to Valley of the Fallen. Had limited input from guide as she did not go inside the church part to give commentary. Walking needed here too. City tour was good. Guide had a new driver and did a good job of directing and commentary was good too. Guides spoke in English and Spanish - so sometimes you were not sure if what you were looking at was what was being described.

I absolutely loved this tour! El Escorial Monastery houses the tombs of most of Spain's Royal Family. While the Valley of the Fallen had a Basilica carved inside a mountain. Reminds you of the statues of Gondor in Lord of the Rings. It's quite mind-blowing what people can build. Highly recommended!